Coolant pump



J- DE W. GRAY f cooLANT PUMP Filed June 26, 1943 Patented Dec. 2, '1947 oooLAN'r PUMP .lohn De Witt Gray, Chicago, Ill., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Gray-Mills Corporation, Evanston, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application June 26, 1943, Serial No. 492,369

This application relates to portable, fluid pumping apparatus and particularly to an improved, many duty pump which may be used in a recirculating system or as a convenient means for emptying one container and filling another.

The invention herein disclosed follows closely that described in applicants copending application Serial No. 436,082 filed March 25, 1942. In that application, applicant illustrates a portable container with a removable lid having suspended from its under side a gear pump which will be submerged in fluid in the container when the lid is in closed position. A fluid delivery hose from the ,pump extends through the lid of the container fand the delivery end or nozzle of this hose may be directed upon a cutting tool. The fluid so delivered may be caught in a pan and returned to the container wherein is mounted the gear pump. This portable recirculating system is used in machine shops for recirculating a fluid coolant from a source of supply to a tool and back to the source of supply.

The principal object of this invention is to modify the portable gear pump and container illustrated in applicants copending application in such a way that i1; may perform an ordinary pumping operation consisting of emptying a drum of oil into any other suitable container. One of the features of the present invention is the provision of a flexible intake line to the inlet of the pump. By this arrangement, the flexible inlet line may be submerged in a container to be emptied and the delivery line may be directed to any other container or depository.

While it is rarely desirable in transferring a liquid from one container to another to control the rate of flow in the delivery line, it sometimes is desirable, and one of the objects of this invention is to provide a manual control for the volume output of the pump without necessarily introducing the pumped fluid into the container containing the pump. In the invention shown in the copending application, the flow of the outlet line is controlled by the expedient of by-pass ing any selected quantity of liquid from the delivery line back into the container from which it has been pumped. In the p-resent invention means are provided where this may be done if desired or not. In the latter case, the fluid is bypassed back to the intake of the gear pump and "not circulated back into the container at all.

In connection with this bypassing arrangement, one of the majorobjects of this invention is to provide a simple means for using the fluid 4 Claims. (Cl. 103.-41)

vin the container to prime the pump. These gear 2 pumps and more particularly the hose connections are vnot verytight and if the pump stands 24 hours without use, the lines will become suinciently empty of fluid and filled with air so that the pump Will not function unless it is primed. A major object of this invention is to provide means for priming both the inlet and the outlet sides of the gear pump with iiuid from the container by a simple manual operation. By this arrangement, if the level of the fluid in the container is above the pumping point by a distance greater than the distance from the iiuid level to the point Where the inlet line passesover the edge of the container, it will always be possible to quickly prime the pump. As a practical matter, however, the inlet hose is not' primed in this way. Applicant provides a hole in the top of the lid through which the intake end of the flexible hose may be passed downwardly into the fluid in the container, and then the hose can be lled with fluid and the pump stopped. The flexible hose may then be withdrawn and its end placed in the container which is to be emptied and the pump started. This results in some complications if the fluids are different, as for example if the container to be emptied is lled with a cutting oil of one viscosity and the portable pump unit is filled with an oil of a different viscosity. In machine shops, however, While they endeavor to keep the oil separate, a little mixing does not cause any measurable harm.

These and such other objects as may hereinafter appear are attained in one embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawings comprising one sheet wherein: y

Figure 1 illustrates applicants portable pumping unit positioned between two containers; and

Figure 2 is a sectional view of applicants portable container showing the conduits in the pump which make it possible to prime the pump.

Continuing to refer to the drawings and particularly to Figure 1, the numeral I0 generally identifies applicants portable unii-l consisting of a container I2, a lid I4, an electric motor or other source of power I6 controlled by a switch unit I1, a. flexible delivery hose I8 and a flexible intake hose 28. In the lid I4 is an opening 22 of a size suiiicient to admit the end 24 of the intake line 20 while a second opening 26, depending from which is an inverted conoidal shaped screen 28 (see Figure 2), permits the insertion therein of a return hose line (not shown) from a catch pan disposed beneath a machine tool, as described in applicants copending application. n

Referring now to Figure 2, the intake line 20 feeds a duct 30 which in turn opens into the gear pump section 32, which need not here be described, other than to say that the pump is driven by a suitable power train from the motor I6. From the section 32 the oil is forced during operation into the delivery duct 34 and thence out the delivery hose I8. Connecting the delivery duct 34 to the delivery conduit 3.0 is a duct 36 which communicates with duct 34 by vpassageway 38 and with duct 30 by passageway 40. In vertical alignment with the passageway 38 is a valve 42 of the pin type which is positioned with respect to the general pump housing 44 by means of a threaded engagement .between its lower threaded end 45 and a threaded shoulder 43. The lower end of the valve 42 may be caused to seat on a beveled shoulder 49 at the top-of passageway 38 and close the same by rotating the'rod 5I] having a wing nut 52 at the upper end thereof.

It will be noted that the duct 36 by means of the passageway 54 opens intonthe inside of the container I2. Its vinside outer end is threaded to f Assuming first that itis desired -to perform a -recirculating operation, that isto say, an operation for delivering a coolant to a tool and thence returning the warmed coolant to the container -for recirculating by the pump, the intake `line 20 will have its end 24 positioned through the .opening 22 in the pumping unit `lid I4 so that it will occupy some position such as 60 in Figure`2. When the pump is started, fluid will `be drawn from the container I2 into the inlet end r.24 of the hose 23, thence outside the lid, thence back into the container-to the duct `30. From thence, the fluid will pass through the gear pump, .the duct V34 and out the delivery line I8. If the vdelivery line has its nozzle directed on some tool for cooling, ordinarily the coolant will be picked vup by a pan drained by a eXible hose, the outlet end of which will be positioned in the opening 25 of the lid I4 and the uid vwill pass -through the strainer 23 into the container I2.

Ii it is desired to empty a. large drum such as 52 in Figure l Vinto a smaller container such as 64 or to ll the container I2 ofthe pumping unit Il), the end 24 of the intake line 20 will loe-placed Yin the container to be emptied and the valve 42 will be turned down until the passageway 38 is closed. It will be appreciated that during a container emptying operation, the full capacity of the pump ordinarily will be utilized. There will be no need to reduce the flow at the delivery point. When ,the valve 42 is in closed position, there is established a fluidtight connection from the intake hose Y24 to thedeliveryline I8 and the container` can be completely emptied. Moreover, if it is desired :'.to empty the container I2 all that is necessary is .to place the end. 24 in position 66.

If it is desired to limit the loW in the delivery vline I8 without employing anozzle at the delivery end for restricting the low, Vas by by-passing a quantity of fluid from the delivery side .of 4the pump to the intake side' Without introducing fluid intov the container I2, the cap screw 55 may be placed in position with the result that. the pump will suck a given quantity of uid from the .inlet line 20 and depending upon the opening between the valve 42 and the passageway 38, the pump will suck a quantity through the conduit 3B from the delivery side.

One of the most important functions of this arrangement is to prime the pump and this priming is done on both the inlet and outlet sides of the line. When the cap screw 5S is removed, if the pump loses its prime, all that is necessary is to open the valve 42. Under such circumstances iiuid will enter the conduits 54 and 36, which are merely extensions of one another, and by the passageways 38 and 40 will enter the delivery conduit 34 and the inlet conduit 3D. By placing the end 24 of the inlet conduit 20 in position 60, one `is quickly able to ll the conduit 2i) with fluid so that it may then be transferred to some other container for emptying the same.

"Having thus described my invention, what I wish to patent and protect by United States Letters Patent is:

l. Portable pumping apparatus comprising a container, a lid therefor, a gear pump suspended from the under side oi said lid Afor positioning within said container below a fluid level when the lid is in closed position, Yan inlet and an outlet on the pump, a conduit having one end in liquid tight engagement with said inlet and its other end outside the container, a conduit having one end in liquid tight engagement with said outlet and having its other end outside the container, and means for admitting fluid from the container to both the Vinlet and outlet sides of the vpump concurrently whereby the pump may be primed.

2. Portable pumping apparatus comprising a. container, a lid therefor, a gear pump suspended from the under side of said lid for positioning within said container below a iluid level when the lid is in closed position, an inlet and an outlet on the pump, a conduit having one end in liquid tight engagement with said inlet and its other end outside the container, a conduit having one -end in liquid tight engagement with said outlet and having its other end outside the container, and means for admitting fluid from the container to both the inlet and outlet sides of the pump concurrently whereby the pump may be primed, said means being mounted on the lid and controllable from a point thereabove.

3. In a portable fluid pump-ing apparatus consisting of a container and a container lid having a pump mounted on the under side thereof, a horizontally disposed delivery line from said pump, directly thereabove a by-pass conduit opening into the interior of the container, a port having a vertically disposed axis connecting the delivery line and the by-pass conduit, an opening in vertical alignment with the port and connecting the bypass conduit to the inside of the container, and a valve positioned through said opening and seatable in said port, said valve being controllable from above the lid.

4. In a portable iluid pumping apparatus con- ,sisting of .a container, a container lid, and a casting containing a pump suspended from the underside of the lid, a horizontally disposed delivery line in said casting, vertically thereabove a by- ,pass conduit opening into the outside of the casting yand `also into the low side of the pump, a port having a vertically disposed `axis connecting the delivery line to the by-pass conduit, a threaded opening in the casting above and in alignment with the part and a rod threadably mounted in the opening and adapted to move inwardly of the casting to close the port, said rod extending above Number the lid. 2,170,464 JOHN DE WITT GRAY. 1,936,853 2,273,214 REFERENCES CITED ,3 2,294,705 The following references are of record in the 1,296,077 111e of this patent: 1,930,293 589,515 UNITED STATES PATENTS 822,622 Number Name Date 10 459,299 2,033,812 Brewer Mar. 10, 1936 916,663

6 Name Date Rosenberry Aug. 22, 1939 Ofeldt Nov. 28, 1935 McConaghy Feb. 17, 1942 Wedeberg Sept. 1, 1942 Hawkesworth Mar. 4, 1919 Valentine Oct. 10, 1933 True Sept. 7, 1897 Morse June 5, 1906 M1115 Sept. 8, 1891 Bower Mar. 30, 1909 

